I have been googlng this for the past 4/5 days trying to find a solution and it seems im not alone.

There are a lot of people as surprised as me that this function is not available and from what i can read would also be willing to pay for it. If someone wrote a little plugin for this it could be worth their while.

Surely a way to restrict a forum or topic access cant be that difficult for someone in the know to create?

I have started work on a plugin very similar (it would let you do this) but the problem I have encountered is not allowing the user to see the forum, I am sure there is something I am overlooking but if I find it, I will let you know.

I have seen you post on some of the similar topics to this in the past and hoped you would pop your head in.

So at the moment your plug in acts in the same way as if you password protected a forum but without the need for a password? ie people can see the forum name but if they click it they need to enter a password.

I need a way of the forum or topic name also being hidden from the users as it contains too much private information and it has to due to the nature of the business i am in.